Government faces urgent call to tackle Britain’s ‘fraud epidemic’
The government has been warned by an influential group of MPs to urgently tackle a “fraud epidemic” across Britain, amid concerns about the increasing financial toll on consumers and taxpayers from economic crime.
The Commons Treasury committee said ministers needed to bring in fresh laws and beef up resources for fighting fraud after a dramatic surge in scams during the coronavirus pandemic.
It said there had been a 43% jump in fraud and computer misuse between June 2019 and June 2021.
Publishing a report as pressure mounts on the government to tackle fraud after the shock resignation of Lord Agnew last week, the cross-party group of MPs called for law enforcement to be appropriately resourced to tackle the scale of the problem.
A Treasury and Cabinet Office minister with responsibility for counter-fraud, Agnew announced his resignation during a speech at the House of Lords dispatch box, saying that the government’s performance in tackling fraud in Covid-19 support schemes had been “nothing less than woeful”.
Acknowledging his resignation in a critical report for the government, the Treasury committee said urgent reforms were needed to identify and punish fraud, as well as to improve the level of protection for consumers when using online services.
The committee called on the government to enact long-delayed reforms to Companies House, the registrar for firms, saying higher incorporation fees and tighter identity checks were needed to prevent fraudsters from hiding their identities behind UK businesses to launder money and conduct crime.
The powerful committee of MPs said it was pushing for the government to set out legislation to tackle fraud in an economic crime bill. It comes after Agnew warned last week that ministers had
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